In 2014, he was ranked 36 on Forbes list of the world's most powerful people[5] and in 2010, he was included in Forbes's list of "68 people who matter most".[12] As of 2013, he is India's richest man and second richest man in Asia.[5] Ambani is listed as the 19th richest person in the world with a personal wealth of $23.6 billion.[13] He has retained his position as India's richest person for the sixth year in a row.[14] Through Reliance, he also owns the Indian Premier League franchise Mumbai Indians. In 2012, Forbes named him one of the richest sports owners in the world.[15][16]

Contents

Mukesh Ambani was born on 19 April 1957 to Dhirubhai Ambani and Kokilaben Ambani. He has a younger brother, Anil Ambani, and two sisters, Dipti Salgaoncar and Nina Kothari. The Ambani family lived in a modest two bedroom apartment in Bhuleshwar, Mumbai until the 1970s.[17] Dhirubhai later purchased a 14-floor apartment block called 'Sea Wind' in Colaba, where, until recently, Mukesh and Anil lived with their families on different floors.[18]

In 1980, the Indian government under Indira Gandhi opened PFY (polyester filament yarn) manufacturing to the private sector. Dhirubhai Ambani applied for a license to set up a PFY manufacturing plant. In spite of stiff competition from Tatas, Birlas and 43 others, Dhirubhai was awarded the licence.[22] To help him build the PFY plant, Dhirubhai pulled his eldest son Mukesh out of Stanford where he was studying for his MBA. Mukesh Ambani, then dropped out to help his father and initiated Reliance`s backward integration from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals, beginning in 1981.[23]

Ambani directed and led the creation of the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, India, which had the capacity to produce 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) in 2010, integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure.[25]

In December 2013 Ambani announced, at the Progressive Punjab Summit in Mohali, the possibility of a "collaborative venture" with Bharti Airtel in setting up digital infrastructure for the 4G network in India.[26]

In February 2014, an FIR has been filed against Mukesh Ambani for alleged irregularities in the pricing of natural gas from K G Basin.[27]Arvind Kejriwal, who had a short stint as Delhi's chief minister and had ordered the FIR against has accused various political parties of being silent on the gas price issue.[28] Kejriwal has asked both Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi to clear their stand on the gas pricing issue.[29][30] Kejriwal has alleged that the Centre inflated the price of gas to eight dollars a unit though Mukesh Ambani's company spends only one dollar to produce a unit, which meant a loss of Rs. 54,000 crore to the country annually.[31][32]

On 18 June, Mukesh Ambani addressing the 40th AGM of Reliance Industries said it will invest Rs 1.8 lakh crore across businesses in the next three years and launch the much-awaited 4G broadband services in 2015 as it looks to break-into top 50 companies of the world.[33]

Mukesh is married to Nita Ambani and has two sons, Anant and Akash, and a daughter, Isha.[44] They live in a private 27-story building in Mumbai named Antilia valued at US$1 billion and it is said to be the most expensive home in history.[45][46]

During the fiscal year ending 31 March 2012, Mukesh, it was reported, decided to forgo nearly Rs 24 crore from his annual pay as chief of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). He elected to do this even as RIL's total remuneration packages to its top management personnel increased during that fiscal year. This move kept his salary capped at Rs 15 crore for the fourth year in a row.[47]